page_title: Earp Vendetta Ride
section_title: Gunfight with Curly Bill
hierarchical_section_title: Earp Vendetta Ride / Earp posse pursues Outlaw Cowboys / Gunfight with Curly Bill
caption_attribution_description: English: During 1918 and 1919, Wyatt Earp told his story about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and its aftermath to John Flood. With Earp's input, Flood drew a map of the location of Iron Springs, where Earp killed Curly Bill Brocius. Earp was also interviewed by Forrestine Hooker. The map was included in her story.
context_page_description: The Earp Vendetta Ride was a deadly search by a federal posse led by Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp for a loose confederation of outlaw "Cowboys" they believed had ambushed his brothers Virgil and Morgan Earp, maiming the former and killing the latter. The two Earp brothers had been attacked in retaliation for the deaths of three Cowboys in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. From March 20 to April 15, 1882, the federal posse searched southeast Cochise County, Arizona Territory for the men they believed were responsible for the attacks on Virgil and Morgan. Several suspects had been identified and were charged, but were soon released by the court, owing in some cases to legal technicalities and in others to the strength of alibis provided by Cowboy confederates. Wyatt hoped that the legal system would bring the Cowboys to justice, but after suspects in both ambushes were freed, Wyatt resolved to take matters into his own hands.
  On March 20, two days after Morgan's murder, Wyatt, his brothers Warren and James, Doc Holliday, and two other deputies were escorting Virgil and his wife Allie to a California-bound train in Tucson.
context_section_description: On Friday, March 24, the Earp posse, including Wyatt, Warren, Doc Holliday, Sherman McMaster, and Texas Jack, rode west about 12 miles (19 km) from their overnight campsite about halfway between Contention and Drew's Station. The federal posse rode westerly up a wash towards a prearranged meeting place at a springs, where they expected to meet Smith, who was to bring $1000 from Tombstone, about 20 miles (32 km) to the east.
  The springs were identified by Wyatt Earp as "Iron Springs," but the location was reported the next day by The Tombstone Epitaph as "Burleigh Springs", about 8 miles (13 km) south of Tombstone and  4 miles (6.4 km) east of Charleston. The spring was located in the Whetstone Mountains west of Tombstone and was later renamed Mescal Springs. Some modern researchers believe it is actually Cottonwood Springs. The actual location is uncertain.
  With Wyatt and Doc Holliday in the lead, the six lawmen surmounted a small rise overlooking the springs and were surprised to find nine Cowboys already there: Curly Bill, Pony Diehl, Johnny Barnes, Frank Patterson, Milt Hicks, Bill Hicks, Bill Johnson, Ed Lyle, and Johnny Lyle. They were camped about the springs, cooking a meal, less than 30 feet (9.1 m) down an slight embankment. Once again, the odds were not in the lawmen's favor.
caption: In 1919, with the help of John Flood, Wyatt Earp drew a map showing the location of Iron Springs.
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